Second Title Further Vindicates K-Hawks Trade For Vinc

Second Title Further Vindicates K-Hawks Trade For Vinc

Rochester has won championships in 2 of 3 seasons since trading away John Grant

In October of 2010, the Knighthawks traded away superstar John Grant for
a package that included goaltender Matt Vinc. The deal was heavily
criticized.

No one is criticizing it now.

Vinc was a big reason Rochester won their second straight NLL championship thanks to a 11-10 win over Washington Saturday night.

The team returned to Toronto by plane Sunday evening. A celebration in
Rochester is being planned, but no details are set just yet.

Irondequoit grad Joe Walters--who scored the only Knighthawks goal in
the title game's second half--says the team does feel vindicated
regarding the Grant for Vinc deal. "I think Curt Styres had a vision,"
Walters said. "Some people didn't think it was the right vision, but I
think we all believe in him... He's brought in the pieces that were the
right fit and he's been proven right."

It didn't look like the Knighthawks would even make the playoffs, let
alone win the whole thing, after the team started 2013 with three straight
losses. "We didn't lose confidence. We knew what we had," Walters said.
"We've always said it's all about who peaks at the right time and we did
that."

The Knighthawks have made peaking at the right time an art form.
Rochester has actually lost more regular season games than they won
during this two-year reign as NLL Champs. Since 2012, the K-Hawks are
15-17 in the regular season and 6-0 in the postseason.

"To have practice once a week, it's certainly tough to gain that team
chemistry," Walters said."Sometimes it takes the season to iron out
who's playing well. We just want to start playing our best ball at the
end of the year and we've done that the past two years."

Can the team win three in a row? There's no reason to think otherwise.
"The whole team's going to be back," Walters said. "I don't think we're
going to be losing anybody.. we've got our team. We've got to just keep
playing."